Alderman Goes With The Flow On Kedzie Traffic

Stone, Council Reverse 1-way Order

Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) was heading one way, but his constituents were heading another. And thus, a stretch of Kedzie Avenue is once again going both ways.

Stone, fearing that traffic from the new Evanston Center shopping plaza would overwhelm neighborhood streets, had persuaded the City Council to make Kedzie northbound only from Howard Street to Touhy Avenue and to make a smaller portion of Sacramento Avenue northbound only. But after the changes were implemented Nov. 10, his office was deluged with about 50 calls "from all over the ward" complaining about Kedzie, Stone said.

"This is a major street going through the area," said Sara Drexler, an actuary and West Rogers Park resident who complained. "He had to know he would have to reverse it. It just totally messed up traffic."

Stone's reversal came swiftly: On Nov. 16, Kedzie was again a two-way street.

"I had no idea so many people would feel affected," Stone said.

In May 1993, Stone was responsible for Chicago erecting a four-block-long metal guardrail down the middle of Howard Street. That barrier, which also was designed to shield Chicagoans from Evanston mall traffic, was taken down under a judge's order last month.

Stone said he pursued both initiatives-the barrier and the one-way streets-at the behest of the North Boundary Homeowners League. The group's president, Judith Rubin, said she wished the Kedzie experiment had been given more time so that "discombobulated" residents could have adjusted to it.

"I have to give Alderman Stone all the credit in the world for trying something to help this group of people in the area," said Rubin, whose group includes more than 300 members living in an area bounded by Touhy, Howard, California and Kedzie. "We have a lot of children in our area and a lot of elderly, and we're concerned about cars having no other place to go."

Last Sunday, when a Jewel-Osco store opened in the Evanston mall, "it was an absolute madhouse" on neighboring Chicago streets, Stone said, with shoppers parked up to four blocks south on Kedzie from Howard. "That was opening day. We're hoping it will straighten out."

Aside from the inconvenience posed by the Kedzie switch, Drexler said she was upset about the tax money spent in "putting up the signs, changing the lines in the road, and taking down the signs. It's completely wasted money."

Labor for the entire operation cost roughly $2,000, said Chicago Department of Transportation spokesman Craig Wolf. The project involved 51 street signs, he said, but "the cost of the signs isn't applicable, because they can be used again."